Has anyone used ultegra much? Is it crap for trials? I ask for 6 to 8 months tops out of it. I've heard some bad things and some good things. If anyone broke them did they look like this and where did they break and how long.

I broke the dura ace carrier at the pins. But it had only two gears so the whole thing was skinner compared to the 3 cog carrier. As far as the 3cog carriers go I had pretty good luck with them as I ran my previous cassette for like a year before switching. I am running an ultegra right now it is doing fine. (two weeks on it so far)

The 12-21 Ultegra is the only one with a 19T cog on a 3 cog carrier that I now of (21-19-18). I've shredded the 19 off of 2 of them so far in the last year but I'll keep using them. I've gotten a two cog carrier to dig into a steel King freehub before so I'm sold on what I've got now. Trialsbug and myself both have pictures floatin' around somewhere of the schrapnel we created. Though if the rules of competition would change and allow single speeds I'd do the King Cog in a heartbeat knowing what to expect from my pre-dedicated single speed XC days.......................

i was using a hybrid 12-23 ultegra/da cassete for well over a year. the 16/17t cogs were pinned to an aluminum carrier (from da, the ultegra is two normal steel cogs pinned to each other. i used the 17 all hte time and it held up fine. it never winced once even during pretty powerful stuff.. ive always tried to ride as smooth as possible, so maybe thats why i never break stuff.

I used an ultegra with the 18/19/21t carrier, worked really well for a while. Then it broke. The tabs on the cog which have the pins pushed through them crack, and after three of the 6 have cracked, all the rest go at once, which has a similar effect as breaking a chain.